Nailing mechanism for box-machines.



W. X. STEVENS.

NAILING MECHANISM FOR BOX MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I2. I9II.

1,156,109. Patented OCI. 1,2,` 1915.

rrp erreA aa orme g WILLIAM X. STEVENS, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OFCOLUMBIA, ASSIGNOR T ELLA L. BARTON,VOF JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA.

Specification of Letters APatent.

Patented oet. 12, isis.

Application filed September 12, 1911. Serial No. 648,913.

To all whom t 11mg/ concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM X. STEVENS, a citizen of the United States,residing at 1Washington, in the District of Columbia, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Nailing Mechanism for Bon-Machines, of which the following is a specification. i

- This invention relates to box making machines,`particularly the partswhich coperate to do the nailing. Its Vobject is to provide receptaclesfor holding nails in bulk, means for separating out the number ofnailsrequired for each boX and means'for guiding these separate nailseach to its right place for use, means fori'guiding each nail to enterstraight into the box` parts, and

lmeans for driving home at one movement the whole number of nailsselected. l To this end my invention consists in mechanism forautomaticallv nailing boX ends hereinafter more fully described,reference being had to the accompanying drawings in whichr Figure 1represents anail hopper partly in side view, partly broken away andpartly in transverse vertical section, Fig'. 2 is a front end view onva"'smaller Iscale of the hopper partly brokensaway., Fig. 3l is a topview of one nail deliveryy on. a large scale,

Fig.' l shows a transverse sectiony of one@ slide-way at line :c Fig. 1,Fig. 5 shows a like section at line y. Fig. 6 is a side view of two nailchucks, and Fig. 7 shows a transverse vertical section at line z, Fig.6.

Numeral 8 represents a nail hopper, which comprises a boX with sheetmetal sides and a thicker bottom, 9, which inclines upward at 10, tocarry the nails up to the top of the rails l1, and at the rear end thebottom is like a series of roofs, 12, inclined laterally to slide nailsdown into the grooves 13, between the rails 11. The hopper is journaledon a shaft 14, to be tipped backward and forward every time a box isnailed. This is to tumble the bulk of nails to and fro and work theminto the grooves 13, where they are caught by their heads on the siderails 11. A guard is hung at 16 over each groove 13 to swing downupon-the rails at each backward tip of the boX to keep in the groove allnails that have gathered there, and to swing upward as shown in Fig. 1to let more nails pass lforward. At the delivery end of the rails 11, apicker boX 17 having a shoulder 18, against whichthe .forward nail isstopped when a row of nails slide down the groove13, is

mounted in bearing 19 to slide to and fro across the ends of the rails.The forward movement may be actuated by a lever 2() which is suitablyconnected for operation by the machine, and the return movement is madeby a spring 21. A picker 22, ateach groove 13, is rigidly fixed to thepicker bar 17, to pass at each forward movement, behind the body of theforemost nail, and Ywhen the delivery 23, through the bar 17, arrivesover the throat 24 in the 'cross beam 25,

the nail will have been wedged along the ,Y

passage 26 into the delivery 23 when it will be free to fall into thethroat 24,- and the pipe `27 to be conducted to the nail-chuck 28. The

lever `has a quick forward and back movement and the picker bar isimmediately rel turned to its normal position, see Fig. 1, for anothernail tocome against the shoulder 18. Butnow the wholevhopper will betipped backward and forward again to insure the gathering of nails inthe slots and to knock loose any bunches that may be wedged or tangled.To insure the light nails coming forward to the picker I provide apounder which comprises a weight 29, mounted for radial adjustment on anarm 30 that is journaled upon the shaft 14: to oscllate with the hopper.`Vhen the hopper tips backward the lug 32 thereon carries the pounderuntil the hopper -is at the end of its movement, when the pounder willbe carried past its center of gravity over the shaft 14, and will fallbackward heavily upon the lug 31. When the hopper tips forward the lug31 carries the pounder forward past center and then it falls against thelug 32. T his pounding helps to jar loose any nails that may be stuck inthe passages and insures the fore most nails coming clear down againstthe bar 18 to be engaged by the pickers.

Each nail chuck comprises two jaws 28 hung in a fixed chuck guide 33,each jaw upon the upper edge of a bar 34. Each jaw is slotted tostraddle its bar as shown in Fig. 7 and the lower end of the slot Viswide to permit the jaws to swing back and springs 35 press the jaws homeupon the bars 34, as shown. At the upper end of the jaws the passage 36between them is large enough to freely admit a nail head, then for aboutthree quarters of the length of a nail the passage is barely largeenough ward.

to admit the body of the nail freely and for a short distance at thelower end the passage is nearly closed to prevent the nail droppingthrough. A plunger 37 for each nail passage is carried by a verticallyreciprocating hammer head, not shown). A face plate 3S perforated at 39to permit the pas* sage of a. nail and the plunger isrigidly securedupon the chuck guide 33 to prevent roughness of the box lumber frominterfering with the action of the jaws 2S. A nail comes down the pipe27 into the passage 36,v

the plunger comes down and drives the nail, causing it first to wedgethe jaws apart at their lower ends, so that when the nail starts toenter the box, which is close up toy the plate 38, the nail will beguided both by its head and point to enter straight, and when the headcomes into the narrow passage between the jaws 28, they are wedged outltwould be practically impossible to drill a small hole through the wholelength of the chuck guide 33, correspond ing to the width of the box tobe nailed, to admit a pin on which chuck jaws could be hung at the pointcorresponding to the upper edge of the bar 3i. rl`herefore this bar issubstitutedas a hanger for the jaws and is rigidly secured to the guide33 by pins 40. By swinging the guards l5. over backward they willprevent nails from going forward to the pickers if by any oversight themachine is started up when boxes are not to be nailed.

Having thus fully described my said invention, what l claim as new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

l. In mechanism for automatically nailing boXes, a hopper hung to betipped backward and forward and having rails in pairs to receive nailbodies between them, and standing above the level of the bottom, thebottom having inclined portions rising rearward higher than the saidrails and slanting roof-shaped transversely to the tops of the rails,and guards pivoted above each pair of rails in front of the elevatedrear portions thereof and arranged to rest upon the tops thereof andhold the nails collected in the slots in front thereof during the upwardtilting of the front of the hopper, substantially as set forth.

52. A nail feeding mechanism comprising an oscillatory hopper havingabottom formed with a series of parallel slots and inclined portionsrising vrearwardly and above said slots and slanting roof-shapedtransversely tol said slots, and a reversible guard pivoted above eachslot in front of the elevated rear portions and adapted to hold thenails collected in said slots in front thereof during the oscillation ofsaid hopper when in use, any one or more of said guards adapted to beosoillated at any time into such apposition as to prevent the passageo-f nails alongl their respective slots during the oscillation of saidhopper when such slots are-not i-n use, substantially as set forth.

ln witness whereof, I have hereunto set 7 my hand and seal atlVashington D. C. this 26th day of August, A. D. nineteen hundred andeleven.

E. W. BRADFORD, F. A. CoLFoRD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. C.

